The Collaborative International Dictionary
Alterative \Al"ter*a*tive\, n. A medicine or treatment which gradually induces a change, and restores healthy functions without sensible evacuations.
Alterative \Al"ter*a*tive\, a. [L. alterativus: cf. F.
alt['e]ratif.]
Causing ateration. Specifically: Gradually changing, or
tending to change, a morbid state of the functions into one
of health.
--Burton.
Wiktionary
a. Causing alteration. Specifically: Gradually changing, or tending to change, a morbid state of the functions into one of health. (from 15th c.) n. (context medicine now historical English) A medicine or treatment which works by changing processes within the body, rather than by evacuating something etc. (from 14th c.)
WordNet
adj. tending to cure or restore to health; "curative powers of herbal remedies"; "her gentle healing hand"; "remedial surgery"; "a sanative environment of mountains and fresh air"; "a therapeutic agent"; "therapeutic diets" [syn: curative, healing(p), remedial, sanative, therapeutic]
Usage examples of "alterative".
Black Cohosh is an alterative stimulant, nervine, diaphoretic, tonic, and a cerebro-spinal stimulant.
In minute doses Blood-root is a valuable alterative, acting upon the biliary secretion and improving the circulation and digestion.
Sweet Elder-flowers are a valuable alterative, diuretic, mucous and glandular stimulant, excellent in eruptive, cutaneous, and scrofulous diseases of children.
The various preparations of mercury have a profound, alterative effect upon the system.
In perfecting this alterative compound, and likewise other standard preparations of medicine, we have made an outlay of many thousand dollars for chemical apparatus, and special machinery by the aid of which these remedies have been brought to their present perfection.
We can confidently recommend this compound whenever an alterative is required to cleanse the blood, tone the system, increase its nutrition, and establish a healthy condition.
This is a tonic to the kidneys, as well as a diuretic and alterative, and is a mild, but very efficient remedy.
In addition to the alterative properties combined in this compound, it possesses important tonic qualities.
He was put upon a tonic and alterative course of treatment, which also embraced the use of such medicines as have been found to exert a specific, tonic action upon the muscular tissues of the heart.
This thorough alterative course, if well persevered in, together with the use of alkaline and vapor-baths, will generally prove very successful.
The eruption upon the skin is but a local manifestation of a functional fault, which must be overcome by alterative remedies.
It is for this reason that neither time nor pains have been spared in perfecting an alterative, tonic, nutritive, restorative, and antiseptic compound, to which Dr.
Not only is it an alterative and a nutritive restorative, acting upon the secretions, but it opposes putrefaction and degenerative decay of the fluids and solids.
The treatment of this disease should consist in rest for the hip-joint, cleanliness of the person and plenty of fresh air and light, a nutritious diet and the use of tonics and sustaining alterative, or blood-cleansing medicines.
An alterative course of treatment is indicated and must be persistently followed.